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I have raised a lot of free-range turkeys for home consumption and to sell to private parties who appreciated a free-range bird. .I butchered the birds myself even for customers . I wish to add my experience toward using the whole animal.. What Fred shows is great for getting out legs and breast for frying or grilling or slow cooking. However, for absolutely flavorful and very nutritious brothy soup of turkey parts and vegetables and herbs, I take the following procedure: I remove the entrails and crop and windpipe for the dogs and cats .I extract the Gizzard, which is very large and meaty, then slice the gizzard in half, peel out the gizzard lining and food contents, then wash it; then repeat with the heart and the liver if desired,( which is allegedly one of the most nutrient dense foods on the planet). Also the neck and head go into the soup,after careful cleaning of course. I cut up the carcass into sizes that will fit into my simmering pot.. I l simmer the parts until meat readily separates from the bones, I let the turkey parts cool, then remove the meat from the bones. For even more gelatinous broth it might be suggested to break the bones to remove or cook out the marrow which is also very nutritious. The feet can be scalded then peeled of skin then added to the soup stock. At any rate the bones add much flavor and nutrition. I am told in Nigeria the natives there eat the bones. My Nigerian more or less adopted family have very strong beautiful white teeth, which they tell me results from chewing and eating the bones. If I tried that my expensive teeth crowns would be broken or dislodged so I save the bones for the dogs. After the meat is removed from the bones I put it all back in the pot with vegetables such as onions, carrots, celery, zucchini , eggplant and potato if you can tolerate the carbohydrates, The potato will absorb excess salt and thicken the soup. If desired Tomato will add color and some acidic flavor. It tastes really good if the vegetables are from the home garden. Add salt, pepper some herbs and spices to taste. This recipe makes soup so delicious even my grandchildren rave about it. Best of all none of the edible portion of the bird is wasted.

Wing feathers can be used for fly tying but at the archery shop prices for chopped fletching feathers are so high, I find it more cost effective to buy a feather chopper then make the wing feathers into some amazing fletchings. Other feathers can be used for fly tying or possibly crafty persons can use them. They certainly cost plenty at the craft shops. I have seen videos where hunters skin the turkey, preserve the skin then make very realistic decoys as well.. If necessary the feathers make a nitrogen and carbon rich addition to the compost pile. The more we can do to use the whole animal the better our public image is as hunters and it simply is good stewardship of the resource. . .

Fred might want to consider the Magnus Bullhead broadhead or similar product for neck or head shots on turkeys and other wild birds. You don’t end up with body wounds which can taint the meat with punctured entrails or bloodshot meat and the bird is well bled out which translates into better flavor. . No need to track them after the shot because you either miss them or they are DRT as in Dead Right There. I use the Magnus Bullheads to harvest my free-range chickens and somewhat free-range geese. It is easier than trying to catch chickens off the roost at night or chase down geese and it bleeds them out much cleaner than an air gun pellet or a head shot with a shotgun or 22 rifle. I am somewhat disabled ( back injury and double total knee replacements) so simply catching my poultry for slaughter is very difficult and exhausting and even dangerous for me. I find killing them via instant decapitation with the Magnus Bullhead Broadhead to the head or neck is by far the most humane method I have found to cleanly kill free-range farm poultry. I am by no means a fantastic traditional archer but the Bullhead Broadhead is wide enough and flies so well that, for example, on one chicken slaughter session I was able to cleanly decapitate four free-range chicken roosters from five to twenty yards within five shots. Those roosters could fly and run like pheasants ( with all the predators I have here my birds must fly or run well or they don’t survive.. I am always on the look out for predators but I can’t kill them all). After the first chicken is killed with the Bullhead Broadhead I have to actually hunt my free-ranging chickens because they definitely recognize the difference in my appearance whether I am carrying a feed bucket or a bow and arrows. As good a bow shot as Fred Eichler is I think he could decapitate a turkey, goose or even a pheasant or grouse with a Magnus Bullhead or similar broadhead.. I can readily imagine his happy dance when he gets one . . .